EVIL thugs stole Third World food parcels collected by pupils at a vandal-plagued high school.

Now drastic action is being taken in its battle against burglars, vandals and intruders.

Governors and teachers at St Hilda's are sick of the rising tide of crime at the Coal Clough Lane school. They want to want to install a £35,000 security camera system to deter the hooligans.

Since the beginning of 1994, the Burnley girls' high school has paid £43,500 in repairing damaged property and replacing stolen items.

It is having a demoralising effect on staff and pupils at St Hilda's, which was recently named as one of England's top state schools by Ofsted inspectors.

Head, Bernadette Bleasdale said: "It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that, on average, there is one incident a week. It is a very big problem."

She said there had even been intruders on school property.

"Sometimes we get them during the day. Cars have been broken into and we have had people being abusive."

The county council and the police are helping the school prepare a bid for government money to fund the scheme, which could become part of the town centre CCTV scheme, which has already cut crime by 44 per cent in its first six months.

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